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Some Things In A Super-mom’s World!

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Hilda had taken her last dose of injection and was struggling
to explain to Otemu, her husband, what she could remember before she blanked-
out and eventually woke up in hospital. ‘I was having some snaps of headache
earlier, but I belie…’ she couldn’t complete the sentence as she gradually fell asleep
again.Otemu just watched her and could
only imagine how stubborn she had been for not taking time out to rest. “So she
could survive being in a place, not walking around the house and getting
unnecessarily busy?” Otemu murmured to himself.

As Otemu helped to adjust Hilda’s right hand properly
on her hospital bed, the doctor walked in talking to him, “ensure you buy these
drugs tonight and let her begin to take them as prescribed,” he said, handing
the prescription to him.Since Hilda was
fast asleep, Otemu rushed out to get the prescribed drugs from the Pharmacy
before going home to help the children prepare dinner.

Rather than help to prepare dinner, Otemu was treated
to a light dinner of mashed potatoes with vegetable and fish stew. Melvin, who
is only 12 years and the oldest of three children, had prepared the food and
package a variety of foods to be taken to his mother in hospital. This was a
great surprise to Otemu that the children could carry out such huge task when
his wife never imagined that they could do the smallest household chore.

Back home from the hospital after two days of
treatmentandobservation of her blood pressure, Hilda sat
in the living -roomand watched her sons
performthe ‘miracles’ of undertaking
domestic tasks effortlessly without her having to even direct them on what to
do.They cleaned the house thoroughly
and selected the cloths for laundry.Breakfast was done perfectly without Hilda’s input and not with that of
Otemu who needed to get some rest for shuttling between the home and hospital
while Hilda was on admission.

Hilda was in for the biggest surprise when she was
served fish pepper soup with plantain for dinner. ‘But just how did you do
this?’ she exclaimed.‘No one had come
in to help do neither the cleaning nor the cooking.’She felt helpless and stupid when her
children aged 12, 11 and 9years told her all they could help out with in the
home; they could cook, wash, clean the home and still do very well in their
academic work. The boys knew when to pack up their books in preparation for
school the next day; they knew when to have their evening shower after dinner
and how to put themselves in bed for sleep!

Undermining her children’s capability to helping out
with some chores in the house, like many ‘super-moms’, Hilda had over the years
slaved to prove that she was indeed a ‘super-mom’ ducked in a painful world.
Over the years, Hilda woke up at 5am even if she went very late to bed. Nobody
could prepare food for her family, she didn’t trust how well her children’s
clothes would be maintained by another person, so there was no need to get a
helping hand even when she had to be in her office at 8am and not leave until
5pm.

Hilda thought
that her family’s survival revolved around her existence, and most of the times
she worried how her children would manage without her when they eventually go
to their own houses! She only just realization how wrong she had been, living
in a dreamland.

For the very first time on the next school day, Hilda's children were set for school without her help and when they went to her say their goodbyes for the morning to her, they found a bold inscription on her door, 'NO SUPER-MOMS WITHOUT SUPER-KIDS!'